Meet Ricardo

From a young age, Ricardo faced severe challenges. One day, he decided he’d had enough of his alcoholic and abusive father. So he ran away. He was just 12 years old.

With no one to really guide him, Ricardo ended up making bad decisions and falling into addiction. But he eventually got married and had four children. He even settled down for a while, building up a business.

Still, Ricardo couldn’t shake off his addiction and relapsed several times. He began spending more and more time away from his family. He says:

“I stayed on the streets because I didn’t want my kids seeing me, what I was doing. I was just jumping from place to place. That was the worst time of my life. I thought I was chasing dreams. I wasn’t chasing anything. I was just going through my downfall.”

It got to the point where he was about to lose everything… his business, and most importantly, his wife and kids.

“It wasn’t just the damage I was doing to my own body,” Ricardo recalls. “It was the damage I was doing to my sons, to my wife. That made me realize, do I want to keep doing this? Or do I want to fix this?”

Joining the program at Helping Up Mission was hard at the beginning. During the 45-day blackout period, there were times he wanted to leave. One morning, as he was listening to the graduates at Friday chapel, he was overcome with the feeling that he wanted to be where they were one day. 

Today, Ricardo is working through the program, taking it one day at a time. He is grateful for the long-term help, such as the work therapy, classes and vocational training to help him prepare for a new life. 

He is most thankful to the donors who have made it possible for him to make a fresh start. He shares:

“I hope people will support Helping Up Mission because they’re doing a great thing here. They’re helping people not just recover from addictions. They’re helping people to recover families, to recover friendships, to recover life. The more people they can help, the better community we can be.”